10 Features You Want In a Starfighter | Star Wars

hi friends welcome back to another episode of generation tech my name is alan when it comes to space combat there's nothing more romantic than the idea of getting inside of a snub fighter and feeling the g's push you into oblivion as you swing yourself onto an enemy fighter six o'clock it's also one of the most dangerous and probably idiotic jobs you can partake in in the star wars universe which is why i really don't recommend you become a star fighter pilot unless you have some really you know destiny driven plot armor that is extremely thick and accessible but obviously most people won't listen to my safety recommendations and pursue this dangerous line of work anyway and while training discipline and a lot of simulator time will increase your overall survivability today i want to talk about the actual starfighters you might be putting yourself in there are a lot of confusing options for a young pilot to choose from so i thought it'd be interesting to look at 10 different features and design concepts that are very important when looking for a new starfighter [Music] like the obvious thing would be for me to recommend you guys always find a snub fighter with a hyper drive placed inside of it it allows you to be independent from a carrier ship of some kind and should your carrier ship get destroyed you won't be stranded which is a huge plus also one of the most dangerous moments of any deployment for any starfighter pilot is the second they leave the hangar in the middle of a dogfight there's limited visibility for the pilot and it's a perfect bottleneck for enemy fighters to lay traps in it's much better to just start your attack from hyperspace and a lot safer you might even get a few minutes on harass while the enemy is deploying their own fighters but on the other hand there's this other aspect that's not talked about a hyperdrive even a miniature rise when placed in a starfighter is ridiculously large complex and heavy and expensive there are certain scenarios where not having one of these bulky hyperdrives can be a huge advantage and save energy and space for weapons speed and defenses especially if you're a pilot for our planetary defense force and garrison don a nearby planet of some sort there are also plenty of cases in history where non-hyper space uh capable ships will just outperform the heavier and larger hyperdrive enabled starships for instance during the galactic civil war the much lighter tie fighters oftentimes overcame x-wings and a-wings and during the clone wars much simpler droid fighters usually beat bulkier hyperdrive equipped republic starfighters this might be another one of those not too obvious design features you're going to have to pay attention to some snap fighters like the t65x wing are designed for a wide range of environments some snow fighters like the tie in space superiority fighter should only really be used in space and have airframes that have some severe aerodynamic issues other strips like the tie striker or the t16 skyhopper are purpose built to take advantage of atmospheric conditions and excel in aerial combat when choosing your first starfighter it is incredibly important to figure out which environments that starfighter is actually designed to fly in generally anything that you can put through a wind tunnel and have a decently low drag coefficient is going to be able to perform well in atmosphere and then more clunky designs that have for instance solar panels at right angles just jutting out in random spots are going to probably be built for space maneuvers choosing the wrong type of ship for a job can oftentimes be deadly believe it or not having a actual full life support system in your ship is something you might want to consider as well some individuals especially imperial pilots using the tie fighter line prefer a ship with minimal life support and wear pressurized and heated suits into combat the idea is that it takes a lot less energy to power a flight suit rather than pressurizing and heating the entire cockpit also in this case if there is a whole breech the pilot is already prepared for the uh you know stresses of vacuum whereas rebel pilots like flying around with a three-quarter helmet on which won't do much in vacuum at all and so just like the hyperdrive having a life support system on your ship is a trade-off between weight and uh in this case comfort and safety now if you're planning on doing long-haul trips in your snowflake or a full life support system might be necessary just so you can take off that stuffy helmet from time to time now ultimately all ships whether it's a snub fighter or a star destroyer are limited by how much power they have in their power plants and no classes chip pushes the envelope more when it comes to how thin the operating margins are than a starfighter especially nowadays where starfighters have hyper drive shields you know advanced sensor packages on them most starfighters are going to be pushing the limits of their power plants way beyond the safe operating margins meanwhile engineers are still trying to decrease the size of these power plants and increase their cooling efficiency be especially wary when looking at stuff fighters or uglies that have a lot of aftermarket parts usually these second hand ships are not the best designed and will have severe power shortage issues in key systems which can create serious reliability issues astromechs actually serve a lot of different purposes depending on the pilot for some pilots an asteroid mech is not only a crew member but also a lifelong friend more importantly only astronax have the ability to calculate multiple hyperspace jumps and keep your stunt fighters safe and sound see most starfighters do not have the luxury of having an advanced nav computer so ultimately you're going to be depending on that little droid to make sure that you don't you know fly straight into a black hole or some kind of wandering nebula also a well-trained astronaut can help with energy management during a dogfight and increase the overall efficiency of your fighter's power plant this usually involves redirecting energy to the shield's weapons and thrusters whenever you really need them astromex are also known for being able to jerry rig repairs while in the middle of a dogfight so always make sure your starfighter has a slot for an astromech in many cases an astromech is going to be a lot more useful than a human co-pilot or gunner and they're going to also take up a lot less space and food watch out for certain classes of ships like the delta 7 ether sprite interceptor these ships usually have way too thin of a hole and can only accommodate the head portion of an astromech always ask permission from your astro meg before removing its head from its body because it can usually create complications later on when you're in a tricky situation like in a dogfight a ship like the arc 170 which is not only massive but features medium laser cannons and the ship's main forward armament has a significant problem in dogfights while a single shot from a medium laser cannon can obliterate a typewriter with one shot and probably take out the entire shield of an x-wing and damage its components the cycle rate of a medium cannon is just way too slow to make it efficient for most dog fighting scenarios as we'll see during the battle of course on the arc 170 while some real problems tracking and destroying enemy droid fighters although others have attributed the arc 170's poor performance to its bulk and lack of maneuverability the rebel alliance in the earlier years of the galactic civil war rarely fielded anything larger than a corvette yet they were still able to score some pretty remarkable victories against some very well-equipped capital ships the main cause for the rebels success was the fact that they were able to attach proton torpedoes concussion missiles and ion weapons onto every one of their snub fighters whether it was a tiny a-wing or a y-wing assault bomber every snowfighter in the rebel alliance had anti-capital ship capabilities this was exactly the opposite of what you would see with a standard tie fighter which only had a laser cannon on board if you really want to make an impact in a larger battlefield you're going to have to have a torpedo rack on that starfighter this is another controversial subject for debate when it comes to starfighter design while i mainly support the shields over no shield argument again this is a discussion about speed maneuverability energy efficiency versus defense and bulk a-wing pilots commonly stripped the shields on their starfighters in order to give their ships even more sub-light engine power this was a direct reaction to the tie interceptor which were unshielded fighters the empire designed as a reactionary measure after realizing the rebel fighters were outgunning their ties in almost every category of course going back to the battle of course on the gun the heavier arc 170s which were heavily shielded had a lot of problems when compared to the lighter less shielded republic fighters that were going up against these unshielded droid fighters ideally you can have a ship that is both very maneuverable and well protected like the x-wing but sometimes you're gonna have to settle for one or the other the margins of error for piloting a starfighter are close to zero there are no self-sealing compartments no escape pods no second chances when you suffer hole breach in a starfighter it usually means game over which is why a very advanced and well-designed sensor package on a snub fighter can be the difference between life or death a sensor package that can properly detect incoming vessels will allow you to properly choose the battle you want to be involved in and help you avoid ridiculous odds in unnecessarily dangerous dog fights the arc 170 is famous for its long-range sensors which was very useful when it came to its solitary recon missions behind enemy lines some snowfighters are going to be large and slow enough that they will be designed to house a rear turret that can provide covering fire in a dogfight although it is usually pretty hard to hit an enemy fighter with these types of weapons a good rear gunner will keep enemy fighters on their toe and decrease the amount of time they will have to aim at your ship increasing your overall survivability rate so there you have it guys those are 10 different elements that i recommend you take a look at when you're looking for a new starfighter but let me know in the comment section below if i've missed anything i'm sure you guys have a lot of ideas too about what makes a good starfighter compared to a terrible starfighter well guys i hope you enjoyed today's episode don't forget to subscribe and hit that notification button down below so you don't miss out on the rest of our awesome content as usual thanks for joining us today if you're watching this you are generation tech

Channel: Generation Tech

Views: 59,242

Rating: 4.9711032 out of 5

Keywords: generation tech, star wars, starfighter, tie fighter, tie in space superiority fighter, tie striker, x wing, t65b, a wing, y wing, b wing, Proton Torpedos, hyperdrives, shields, ion torpedo, concussion missiles, life support system, imperial pilot, rebel pilot, arc 170, rear turret, space combat, dogfight, star wars dogfight, star wars space combat, best ship design, star fighter, rebel alliance, galactic empire, battle of yavin, best pilots star wars

Id: AMasWSgWfLo

Length: 10min 12sec (612 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 15 2020